Fr James McTavish FMVD

Reflection for Feast of St Bartholomew (24 Aug '09)

Help lay the Foundations! Be an Apostle!

Today is the Feast of the apostle Bartholomew, one of the Twelve apostles of Christ. The first reading gives us a beautiful image of the apostles – as the foundation stones of the city of God. “The wall of the city had twelve courses of stones as its foundation, on which were inscribed the twelve names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb.” (Rev 21,14). Often on buildings is written the name of the benefactors or donors, thanking them for their contribution. Of course, God’s church is not primarily a physical building but a spiritual one. The apostles helped build the Church by spreading the Good News, helping to give the Church and its members a solid foundation. The psalmist today sings “Your friends make known, O Lord, the glorious splendor of your Kingdom.” (Ps.145). The building of the Church continues today. After 2000 years the building up of the Church is only just beginning! Who will continue to build it up? To dedicate to giving the youth of today a solid foundation in life? To give many couples a solid basis for the marriage? Who will continue to make known the glorious splendor of the kingdom today? Maybe we are looking around for other volunteers but guess who God is looking at? YOU! (and me!).

It is a beautiful experience to be involved in the work of building up the Church. At Easter we organized a 3 day stay over retreat to deepen in the Easter Triduum. Many were invited but many were the excuses. No I want to go on vacation, sorry I am going to the beach, would love to but I have a family reunion…so we went out into the virtual streets and lanes as the gospel advises us and tried to invite some extra people by email. One young man wrote back that his life was boring and lifeless like that of many youth of today. He was from a wealthy family but said that his family was so poor because all they had was money. He did not want to fill up his emptiness with materialism and consumerism. He realized as Pope John Paul II noted that “the real reason for materialism and consumerism is the absence of God’s love in the heart of man.” He came to the retreat, encountered Christ and everything changed. This person is so happy and is now organizing many activities for the mission and inviting others. What a joy this is for me! I see my name written there (in very small letters of course!) as this person starts to have a more solid foundation, being built into a spiritual building for the whole of eternity.

Each Christian is called to help in the rebuilding and reconstruction of many lives. As soon as I realized this I left behind my career and dedicate to God’s work full time. I was as a Plastic surgeon. That is why I am so handsome! Actually in case you are wondering, this beauty is 100% natural and comes from my mum! Many people ask me for beauty tips. The best cream for the face I tell them is Vitamin P. Of course we all know Vitamin C and D but Vitamin P? Yes, Vitamin Prayer. Try rubbing in 30 minutes of the Word of God into your face every day. For sure this will keep you looking young and beautiful! The Word of God is sharper than a scalpel (See Hebrews 4,12). When someone is filled with Christ, they radiate beauty and can draw many others to him. Like before I became a missionary when I was in Sydney and was being a bit slack in my church attendance. One day near the Cathedral and deliberating whether to go to mass I saw an old lady walking by in front of me. Frail but with a spring in her step. The heavens opened and it started to pour. I felt sorry for her as her flimsy umbrella did little to protect her from the drenching rain. I covered her with my umbrella and asked her where she was going. To church she replied. I commented that she was going to be soaked. Her reply engraved itself on my heart –“Do you think a little rain will stop me from seeing Jesus, the one who loves me the most?” Wow! I was amazed at how much love she had for Jesus which put my little love to shame. Ok I said, let’s go and we went to mass together. When a soul is in love with Christ many others will be drawn. This little lady was a walking talking incarnation of the love of Christ. How very attractive that is to see the love of Jesus walking around the streets of Sydney.

This is the mission of each one of us and as Jesus says in the gospel today “You will see greater things than this!” You ain’t seen nothing yet. You will see miracles if you believe! God will draw many to Christ through you. What do the people need to see? Apparitions? Miracles? The great miracle they will see in Christ’s presence in you. Of course you need to be intelligent! We can tell the youth “Go to mass! Go to confession!” Be as cunning as a snake and as innocent as a dove! “Go to an outing! Go to a song forum!” That’s better. The more we are in love with Christ the more creative we must be. Our founder who is 82 says “If I have to do a handstand and a cartwheel to draw the people to Christ I will do it!”. We need this strong experience of Christ’s love to go out of ourselves – this is ex-stasis. To go out of ourselves. As Edith Stein (Saint Teresa Benedicta of the Cross) the Carmelite Saint wrote “The deeper one is drawn into God, the more he needs to go out of himself –out into the world, that is to carry the divine life into it”.

And going out into the world as apostles what will we find? A lady from a rich neighbourhood told us to be careful going out into the poor squatter areas. Why? There are good poor and bad poor but there do you know what you will find? You will find only the bad poor, they are lazy. Mam, perhaps you will find you are a little prejudiced. We went to visit a poor family, as an advanced birthday of one of their children. We cooked some pasta and served it to them. We sang some songs. We talked with our little Tagalog (but the love of God overcomes all barriers of language and even the smell of the piglets became a pleasing aroma!) What did we find there? We found Christ himself. Not an apparition but Christ himself, incarnated in their simplicity and humility. A Christ who wants to be close to his people, loving them and sharing the Word of God with them.

A Christ who in this Eucharist will appear, not as an apparition but as flesh and blood, and tell us “If you love me, feed my sheep”. Feed your family, feed your husband, your helper, your driver, give them my Word, to your children, your children’s children! Christ needs apostles today. Urgently. Like the apostle Paul said “The love of Christ urges me. I become all things to all people to save at least some”. Christ needs apostles, he needs imitators not merely admirers or adorers. Christ needs imitators. Are you an admirer, an adorer only, or an imitator? Christ calls us to be imitators, to be apostles, called to build up the Church, to build up the foundations of many people. Imitate me and you will see great things. People will see my face through your life. Go and attract many people for Christ! Go and discover the joy of being an apostle! Go and discover the adventure of laying the foundations of a life in Christ that will last for the whole of eternity! Amen.